


Simply Bulleted

by cutsycat



Category: NCIS
Genre: Case Fic, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-19
Updated: 2018-05-19
Packaged: 2019-05-09 03:21:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14708154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cutsycat/pseuds/cutsycat
Summary: It was supposed to be a simple fraud case to check the box and keep the MCRT occupied. Despite all the bullet points in the document the analysts provided, nothing is ever simple with the MCRT. Will the bullets tear them apart or will it bring them closer together? Or are they simply bulleted?





	1. The bullet

**Author's Note:**

> This is for the reverse bang on [lj](https://ncis-bang.livejournal.com/64717.html).
> 
> The art I picked was:  
> 
> 
> It was done by the amazing [hinky_hippo](https://www.livejournal.com/profile?user=hinky_hippo) on lj and set the stage so well for a story that I just had to pick it. Her art post is [here](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/2018_NCIS_Reverse_Bang/works/14709137).
> 
> Big thanks to [jane_x80](http://archiveofourown.org/users/jane_x80/pseuds/jane_x80) and [Red_Pink_Dots](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Red_Pink_Dots/pseuds/Red_Pink_Dots) for betaing and cheerleading and everything else they did to make this story what it is. I've rewritten a lot since they both looked at this story, so any mistakes are mine.

  
[ ](https://ic.pics.livejournal.com/hinky_hippo/19553029/17406/17406__original.jpg)

Glass shattered everywhere. Multiple vehicles, including the one they had arrived in, erupted in flames right in front of Tony and Gibbs, forcing them to jump out of the way. Tony turned his jump into a barrel roll and quickly rolled behind the next closest vehicle. 

Gibbs flew backwards and landed hard on his back, but his Marine training immediately had him up and running for cover as well. Even doing their best to dodge the explosions, it was practically impossible to avoid all of the falling pointy edged translucent daggers of doom. Tony had multiple lacerations, flesh wounds really, and upon hearing Gibbs’ grunt of pain, Tony knew Gibbs hadn’t avoided injury either.

Worry filled Tony, not only for his and Gibbs’ safety, but also for Bishop and McGee. They’d all been entering the warehouse when the massive amount of Marines and Navy sailors had quickly forced Tony and Gibbs out of the building. Bishop and McGee had been coming in from the opposite end of the building, so Tony had no idea how they’d fared. 

Tony hoped that McGee and Bishop had avoided the danger and were safe or as safe as one can be in a building full of unexpected military men and weapons. Neither Tony nor Gibbs were safe out here in the alley they’d been forced to retreat to. Between the bullets, the multitude of falling glass shards, and the fire from the exploding vehicles, there really wasn’t any safe place in this alley left. 

Tony had found a bit of cover in this electrical box that he was pressed up against with his back, but he knew it wouldn’t be enough to get him out of here alive. Gibbs still hadn’t found any useful cover. He was currently crouching behind one of the flaming vehicles with multiple bullet holes through the windows. 

While technically the vehicle provided cover, it definitely wasn’t safe and quite frankly was as likely to injure Gibbs as the men chasing them. Worse, Tony could see that’s Gibbs' pace had slowed immeasurably. Something was really wrong. 

Tony wanted nothing more than to rush over to Gibbs and make sure he was ok, but he’d been in enough firefights to know that doing that would be the stupidest move he could make. He just hoped that Gibbs could hold on long enough for Tony to reach him. Tony may not be a doctor, but he’d been in law enforcement long enough and had enough first aid training to hopefully patch Gibbs up enough to keep him from dying before help arrived.

Tony would, of course, prefer that Gibbs injuries not be that serious. Tony just doubted that was the case given Gibbs’ slow progression to better cover. Hoping that he could make a break for Gibbs despite knowing it was a foolish move, Tony glanced around the electrical box and down the alley towards the shooters. 

He quickly ducked back cursing as more bullets flew towards him. Tony hated being separated from Gibbs, especially when they were both injured. It wasn’t just payback for Gibbs recruiting him from a bad situation in Baltimore. 

No, Tony had long ago progressed beyond a simple boss and subordinate relationship with Gibbs. Most people considered Tony to be Gibbs’ loyal Saint Bernard, but that wasn’t it either. Tony generally shrugged it off as a friendship, but the truth was he’d fallen hard for Gibbs over the years.

From his brief glance down the alley, Tony spotted the leaders getting away, or at least the two men from the cursory glance that he’d gotten inside the shipping facility that had issued the orders to remove them before they’d been forced outside at gunpoint. Tony’s mind cursed up a storm, but no words passed his lips.

Quiet was still a necessity., his worry for Gibbs forefront in his mind and by far more important than the escaping leaders. Tony still hated when the leaders escaped and their underlings were left holding the bag so to speak. With nothing that he could do about the leaders, Tony focused his attention on the fighters still slowly making their way to them.

He could see the shine of the henchmen’s flashlights in the dark as they moved closer. There were at least 3 of them judging by the light from the flashlights. Alternating his attention between the 3 men coming towards them and Gibbs, Tony worried his bottom lip. 

He couldn’t tell how bad Gibbs’ injury was with the darkness surrounding them, but he knew Gibbs wasn’t moving and that terrified him. Tony held his gun at the ready, waiting to see what the three remaining men would do. While he’d rather be checking on Gibbs, right now, Tony focused on the three men.

Before he could make his way to Gibbs, the 3 men needed to be dispatched. Keeping one eye on the men, Tony waited for his opening. All the while, his mind worked over what they knew about this case so far.

They hadn’t been expecting to walk into a firefight for this case. He only had his normal ammo with him and that didn’t give him a lot of bullets to spare, so he had to make these last few bullets count. A problem that the men coming at them likely did not have from the brief glance Tony managed at a few of the labels on the boxes in the shipping facility before they’d been forced to retreat to the alley.

Silence descended in the alley, punctuated only by a tinkling sound as transparent material hit the ground and the noise from the occasional remaining explosion. The lack of return fire lulled the henchmen coming closer to them into a false sense of security. They also stopped firing after more than 5 minutes had passed without return fire. 

Tony’s fear of Gibbs’ death drew him towards Gibbs, but he resisted the pull as he knew it wasn’t safe, yet. Silent didn’t mean empty, after all. Tony stayed quiet, hoping to convince the henchmen that Gibbs and him had escaped or were dead. The henchmen neared, over confidently or stupidly staying together. 

All 3 of them were clustered together, the only ones remaining in the vicinity. Tony had seen the rest of the massive amounts of armed men leave with the leaders. With just the three of them and how close they were to each other, Tony had to take a chance. 

He fired his gun hitting two of them easily in the chest with his first two shots before they could even get their own shots off. Unfortunately, the third henchmen was able to shoot back and Tony had to seek other cover. They traded bullets as Tony dodged and weaved behind any cover he could find. 

Gibbs’ injury a constant worry in the back of Tony’s mind, Tony finally dropped the third henchmen to the ground with a shot that tore right through the henchman’s leg making it impossible for him to stand. Tony would have preferred to have shot all of them in the chest, but he hadn’t had a good shot. Plus, they really did need some suspects to interrogate, so that they could find out what a practical army of fighters were doing involved in their fraud case.

Tony waited, listening hard for any hint that there were more than the three he’d already dispatched nearby. He didn’t trust that the inflicted leg wound had actually disabled the Marine permanently and the other two could still recover. Glancing around his current lackluster cover, Tony confirmed that the henchmen laid unmoving on the ground and that he didn’t see anyone else. 

He couldn’t go to Gibbs, yet, though. Gibbs would never forgive him if they were able to attack the two of them because Tony didn’t do anything to secure them. Quickly darting out, Tony dove to the floor as the one with the leg wound immediately shot at him. 

Knocking the gun away from the Marine before he got off another shot, Tony quickly tied him up and checked the other two’s pulses. He wasn’t sure if he was disappointed or glad that they all had a pulse. Tony tied the other two up, making sure that they weren’t close enough to reach each other or the other one.

He wished that they’d been able to capture the leaders as his sense of justice insisted that the people truly responsible pay for their crimes. Tony doubted these three were high enough up the totem pole to provide any useful information on who their bosses were. Still maybe they would get lucky and these guys knew more than their bosses thought.

Tony couldn’t help wondering where McGee and Bishop were. He’d been too busy worrying about the bullets and other painful objects flying around at Gibbs and him that he hadn’t had a chance to think about what could have happened to McGee and Bishop when they entered the shipping facility from the other door. He hadn’t heard from them, so it was possible they’d heard the commotion being made in the facility and the alley as the group of military or ex-military men chased Gibbs and Tony out of the building they’d entered. 

He hoped McGee and Bishop were close by and could follow up on the guys that escaped, but first Tony needed to check on Gibbs. He blanched when he realized that Gibbs hadn’t been hit by glass like he’d originally thought. Gibbs had actually been shot. 

Pulling out his phone, Tony tucked it between his shoulder and his ear after dialing 911 as he started applying pressure to Gibbs’ obvious bullet wound. He rattled off the needed information for 911 and hung up as soon as they confirmed an ambulance was on its way. Needing to make sure that they procured as much evidence as possible, Tony dialed McGee and Bishop.

Bishop confirmed that they’d seen the men as she clambered up the fire escape of the old building at the other end of the alley from Tony and Gibbs to chase after a few of the henchmen. She also informed Tony that McGee was following the others as best as he could in the car. Tony hung up after Bishop confirmed that backup was already on the way as that would have been his next call.

Tony still had no idea why opening the door to the shipping facility warehouse had resulted in shouts of alarms and an almost ant like outpouring of men and gunfire. They hadn’t even announced that they were NCIS agents as they’d been checking out a lead for a simple fraud case and had wanted to see what information they could get without them clamming up due to them being the authorities. Nothing had prepared them for what they walked into.

“Stay with me, boss.” Tony ordered, desperately pressing harder on the wound, hoping the pain would keep Gibbs awake as he couldn’t lose Gibbs. 

Even if he had no chance at a romantic relationship with Gibbs, Tony needed Gibbs alive. The man had saved him from a dirty partner and an engagement that would never have worked out. Gibbs trusted Tony in ways no one else ever had. 

Even just Gibbs’ friendship meant more to Tony than he would ever be able to explain in words. Most people didn’t understand, they only saw Gibbs’ gruff exterior and never realized the caring man underneath. Oh, the team understood to a certain extent.

They all trusted Gibbs with their lives, but it was more than that for Tony. Even when the nights at Gibbs’ house were spent in complete silence watching Gibbs work on his boat, Tony knew that Gibbs cared for him. If he were to be captured, imprisoned, or otherwise prevented from showing up to work, Gibbs was the only one Tony knew for a fact would always come from him.

Gibbs groaned. He knew it was bad. This may be the end for him. In addition to the bullet wound in his gut, Gibbs knew he had multiple glass shards embedded in his skin. The bullet wound was bleeding way too much for his comfort and the only reason he wasn’t already unconscious was that it was Tony’s hands putting pressure on his wound.

Gibbs’ eyes grew misty as he stared at Tony wondering if this would be the last time that he would see Tony. He’d loved Tony for a long time, but he’d never told him. How could he with the power imbalance of him remaining Tony’s boss? 

He wanted Tony to take a promotion, but at the same time he didn’t. He couldn’t handle the thought of Tony away from his protection. On the other hand, he wasn’t free to pursue Tony due to their work relationship. 

Of course, the entire thing may be moot now. He couldn’t help feeling like he was exsanguinating. The blood flowing from the wound had slowed down after Tony started applying pressure, but that didn’t mean he was out of danger. 

“Come on, boss. I know you like to do the silent mute thing, but I need you to talk to me. I need to know you’re still alive.” Following up his audible plea, Tony implored in his head, “Please be alive. Please be saveable.”

Gibbs coughed. “Always about the yabba yabba with you.”

Tony breathed a sigh of relief. At least, they still had a chance to save Gibbs if the damn ambulance ever showed up. Tony would have tried to patch Gibbs up better to stop the flow of blood, but he’d lost his backpack very early on.

He racked his mind for something, anything that he could use to keep Gibbs alive just a bit longer to give the ambulance time to arrive. He ripped Gibbs’ shirt off and used it to staunch the bleeding as best as he could since the shirt was already ruined with the blood from the bullet wound. Gibbs’ shirt alone wasn’t enough. 

Tony pulled off his own shirt to finish wrapping Gibbs’ wound. He pressed down even harder on the wound in his apprehension. Tony tried to keep Gibbs talking by yammering on about wood and a project that Tony had been considering doing, but had never gotten around to doing. 

“You’re doing it wrong.” Gibbs gasped out, shaking his head at Tony’s description of what he wanted. “For what you’re trying to do you should be using cedar not oak.”

Tony stopped talking and stared at Gibbs. “Really? Huh.” 

“Yep. Come over after. I’ll show you how to do it.” Hopefully, Gibbs would be able to find a way to confess his feelings during this visit as well. 

Tony couldn’t help the sigh of relief when he heard the sounds of the ambulance. He hoped that the ambulance wouldn’t encounter any difficulties with the men that he knew remained out there. He would feel so much better when the paramedics had Gibbs’ hooked up and on the way to the hospital. 

He wanted to ride with Gibbs to the hospital, but he knew Gibbs would want him to finish out their case. They also needed to investigate the criminal activity that they stumbled upon. They hadn’t expected a practical army of men with guns. 

Once they’d loaded Gibbs onto the ambulance, Tony directed the paramedics to the 3 men he shot, making sure that they sedated the one that was still conscious. The paramedics tried to see to his wounds, but he waved them off pointing out that they had their hands full with the three men and Gibbs. In fact, he made sure they strapped the three men down before they left.

He called NCIS to send a security team to meet the ambulance at the hospital. He wanted to make sure the men didn’t have a chance to escape or overpower the doctors once they arrived. Additionally, the security team would also prevent anyone from killing their suspects before they had a chance to interrogate them. 

Tony would have rather ridden back to the hospital and taken charge of the prisoners himself. Of course, he would have also snuck in to visit Gibbs while there. Unfortunately, he had to figure out what the heck was going on with their fraud case and couldn’t focus on taking care of Gibbs like he wanted to.

As far as they knew, they were just chasing down a minor fraud case and the company under investigation wasn’t expecting them. They weren’t prepared for an angry mob with firearms. They’d scrambled back as soon as the bullets started flying since without bulletproof vests they were incredibly vulnerable and had ended up in the alley with little to no cover. 

The vehicle they’d arrived in had ultimately met an untimely death as they’d originally sought cover behind it from the multiple gunshots fired at them which then hit the vehicle instead. Tony would swear one of the shots came from a rocket launcher, right before their vehicle exploded. That explosion had started the glass flying. The clear dagger like pieces had speared other parked vehicles in the alley and, combined with the flammable gunfire, ignited them.

The situation had quickly escalated out of control between the explosions, deadly rough edged clear material, and flying bullets as Gibbs and Tony sought what cover they could find. Tony had been the only one successful in finding even a slim amount of cover, which is why he’d been able to return fire when only the three men with flashlights remained. Tony still wanted to search the shipping facility in full even though he suspected that most of the tanks and munitions had already left the facility. 

He couldn’t help the feeling that there was some important evidence there. They clearly had something to hide or they wouldn’t have chased them out of the shipping facility and into the alley so quickly. For the men to fear any stranger entering the facility did not bode well for the activities they were attempting to cover up.

Tony had never hidden the fact that he cared, perhaps too much, for Gibbs. Gibbs trusted him to put the job first, though, so he’d do just that. Tony hoped he wasn't making a mistake staying behind as he watched the ambulance take off, lights whirring, with Gibbs and the three men inside. 

Making an impulsive decision, Tony called Ducky and explained the situation in hopes that Ducky would be able to get away to the hospital and stay with Gibbs since Tony couldn't. He hoped that this wasn’t the end of Gibbs and that he would have the chance to confess his feelings to Gibbs and spend many more years with Gibbs in a romantic relationship. 

By the time Tony got off the phone, backup had arrived. Ignoring the fact that all of the backup agents were staring at his naked chest, Tony took one of the backup agents and headed for the shipping facility. The place was practically deserted now. 

Tony had a bad feeling in his gut. This feeling only increased when Bishop and McGee reported that they hadn't had much luck. The shipping facility was too big for just their team to search, so Tony ordered them back to NCIS. 

Leaving the backup team in charge of going over the crime scene with a fine tooth comb, Tony let the other team lead decide how many other agents needed to be called in to help search. Bishop reported that she captured one guy alive and McGee reported that he'd lost the men he was following as their vehicles split in multiple directions, but that he’d gotten some evidence that they’d dropped in their rush to get away from him. 

Joining Bishop and McGee and the man that Bishop had captured with handcuffs, he climbed into their car to catch a ride back to NCIS headquarters. Bishop and McGee were already in the car, so hadn’t noticed his lack of shirt. He hoped to keep it that way.

The backup agents staring at him was bad enough. If Bishop and McGee noticed, they’d make him see Ducky. He wasn’t hurt that bad. Just a few scratches and gashes. 

They weren’t even bleeding anymore. Of far more importance to him was his desperate desire to visit Gibbs at the hospital, but even that would have to wait. He hoped that he would be able to take some time to check up on Gibbs while Abby was analyzing the evidence and doing her thing. 

He didn’t know if he’d manage to find time to visit Gibbs, though, since he also had to figure out what was going on with their fraud investigation. Currently, they had no way to know if the army of men were related to their case, but Tony frankly doubted it. If they were related, this was way more than a minor fraud cause.

“McGee once you’ve turned over the evidence to Abby, inspect every crumb of knowledge we have on our fraud case. We have to have missed something.”

McGee nodded. “Will do, Tony.”

“Bishop, let’s take the one you captured down to a holding cell and then you can help McGee look into our fraud case while I check up on Gibbs and the other three men to find out when we can interrogate them.”

Bishop nodded and led her capture down to the holding cells. McGee drove the van into the evidence garage before peeling off for his desk. Tony explained to Abby what had happened.

Abby gasped, “Tony! What happened to your shirt?”

“I’m fine, Abbs.”

“Is that blood?” Abby rushed over to Tony, touching at a spot of blood on his chest before realizing what that might look like and stepping back again.

“Just some scratches. It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.” Tony nodded to the evidence. “You need to get started on that. We ran into a bunch of military guys at the location for the fraud case.”

“Hinky.” Abby murmured, though whether she was talking about Tony's injuries or the cases was anyone's guess.

Tony nodded. “I’m going to go make sure Gibbs is alright.”

He hightailed it out of the evidence garage before Abby could freak over Gibbs or him anymore. Before heading to the hospital, he detoured to the gym lockers to clean up his scratches and gashes and remove any glass shards still stuck in him. Adding a few bandages and covering them up with a shirt from his locker, Tony deemed his injuries taken care of and headed for the hospital.

He knew he couldn’t afford to take too long at the hospital, they still had a lot to figure out about the case. Still, he wouldn’t be able to focus on the case until he knew Gibbs’ status. Fortunately, Gibbs was already out of surgery and resting. 

Tony knew that was a good sign. Ducky nodded at Tony, giving Tony a brief rundown of Gibbs’ injuries before stepping out to give him some privacy with Gibbs. Ducky didn’t wait for Tony and immediately headed back to autopsy. They’d had at least one dead body come in while he was at the hospital with Gibbs. Ducky needed to start the autopsy for another team and couldn’t afford to linger now that Tony was here. 

It struck Tony again as he stared at Gibbs, just how much he loved this man. He could have lost him today. His heart beat faster at the memory of discovering Gibbs’ bullet wound and how much blood had been streaming out. 

Tony clamped down on his feelings. He couldn’t afford to panic and freak out about Gibbs dying right now. Believing Gibbs to be asleep, Tony dropped a kiss on Gibbs’ cheek and squeezed Gibbs’ hand, mostly to comfort himself before heading back to NCIS headquarters and leaving Gibbs to the doctors’ care.

He confirmed with the security team that they’d bring the other three to NCIS as soon as they could be released. Tony may still come back to interrogate them in their rooms if they needed information fast and wrung a promise out of the security team to text him if they woke up enough to be interrogated. Now, that he’d confirmed for himself that Gibbs should live, Tony headed back to NCIS headquarters. 

As Tony let his mind focus on the information that they had, he realized there was no sign of the business they were investigating for fraud at the shipping facility warehouse. The company office they were visiting should have been filled with far more paperwork and far less weapons. Admittedly, this did make the case for fraud even more likely. 

It also made it more difficult to figure out what the hell was going on with this fraud case. This was supposed to be an open and shut case. Instead, it had turned into a nightmare with Gibbs injured and clues vanishing the moment they touched them.

Tony’s eyes were going cross-eyed as he stared at the information originally provided to them by the NCIS analysts. There was obviously something wrong with their information, but damned if Tony could figure out what it was right now. The case information seemed to change shape every time he looked at the data they had. 

Bishop had settled on the floor with the papers spread out all around her to review them in an attempt to make them make sense and find the flaw in them. McGee typed away on his computer seeking additional information. So far no one had figured out what the analysts had missed or messed up.

He should have known better than to believe this would be just a simple fraud case. Normally it wouldn’t have warranted the MCRT, but they’d had a lack of major crimes recently and had been given a simpler case. Tony found it ironic that their case given to keep them occupied had led them to a much larger case more fitting for the MCRT.

Tony’s phone rang, providing a much needed distraction, to let him know that the other three men were awake and available for interrogation, though they couldn’t yet be released from the hospital. With them not getting anywhere on the fraud case, Tony requested that they have the man Bishop captured brought up. Tony knew that Bishop had essentially caught the man red handed and hoped that she would be able to exploit what she had seen to get them additional information about whatever they had stumbled upon.

“McGee, trace the fraud case through cyberspace. Find whatever they’re hiding. They’re leading us around by our noses, right now.” Turning to Bishop, Tony demanded. “Bishop, with me.”

Tony indicated for Bishop to take the lead on the interrogation of the one suspect she captured. Tony shook his head as he watched their suspect pretend innocence and that he wasn’t doing anything wrong and that Bishop had no reason to hold him or arrest him. Tony wanted to break in and tell the guy what an idiot he was, but he would only step in if Bishop faltered and needed him to.

His job as SFA wasn’t just to get the criminals, but also to train those in the team. This was a training opportunity for Bishop. She needed more interrogation experience. 

Admittedly, it was easier to let her lead the interrogation in a scenario where they had three others that Tony could choose to interrogate. Still Tony hoped that Bishop would get some critical information that they could use to break the other guys. They still had no clue what they’d walked into. 

Bishop didn’t run an interrogation the way he would, not by a long shot. He was more to the point, where as Bishop used some serious mind games to get to the bottom of things. After she’d gotten as much information as she felt she could right now, the suspect was taken back to his holding cell and Tony and Bishop regrouped in the bullpen with McGee. 


	2. The End or Is it?

While they’d been in interrogation, McGee had gotten Abby’s report on the evidence that he’d brought in from their chase with the armed criminals. She’d confirmed cocaine as well as military grade gunpowder residue. They hadn’t needed the knowledge of drug involvement to know that they stumbled into something dangerous, but confirmation was nice.

Still between that information and what Bishop had gotten from their suspect, Tony was starting to get a picture of what was going on. One that he didn’t like one bit. He had a strong suspicion that they’d just blundered into a major crime ring somehow.

Tuning back into McGee’s report, Tony realized that McGee had moved on to what he’d found out about their fraud case. McGee had found an error with the paperwork. Instead of 3223 for the address, someone at NCIS had flubbed the address and written down 3232. 

Tony nodded. They would have to go investigate the correct address, which would hopefully actually be the company they were looking for and allow them to neatly wrap up the fraud case. As it was a minor fraud case and not imminently life threatening like their other case, it could wait until they’d completed their other case. 

Tony nodded for Bishop to give her verbal report on the results of the interrogation. Bishop’s information would guarantee that they kept control of the crime ring investigation. They’d still have to do a joint op with at least the FBI and possibly one or two other agencies, maybe the DEA, but at least they’d keep control. 

During the interrogation, Bishop had managed to wrangle not only the guy’s name, Josh Manhual, but also that multiple of the leaders were previous Marines and Navy sailors. McGee took that knowledge and ran with it, quickly pulling up the information on the other three men that were still in the hospital.

Apparently one or multiple of the ex-Marines and ex-Navy sailors leading the organization trolled the rejected Marines and Navy sailors to find those that were a good fit for their organization. All four of their suspects had been rejected by either the Marines or Navy. They would have to interrogate the other 3 to confirm whether their rejections had played into their recruitment.

Josh confirmed that he’d been approached by one of the underlings after his rejection to the Marines. He’d never met the top leaders personally, so didn’t know how they chose who to recruit from the rejected Marines and rejected Navy sailors. Bishop had tricked him into admitting that he knew the leaders were ex-military of some sort, but she hadn’t been able to get more than that out of him. 

Tony knew the man was hiding something and they may have to interrogate him again after they uncovered more about this case, but they still had three other suspects and a lot more information to find before getting back to him. The knowledge that the leaders were military, triggered McGee’s memory. He quickly announced that their getaway vehicles were stolen military cars.

Both McGee and Abby started working that angle while Tony contemplated the facts they had so far, “So basically we stumbled into a crime ring that we need to take down.” 

Everybody nodded in agreement. 

“Alright,” Tony continued, clapping his hands, “Let’s figure out how to take the rest of this crime ring down.”

Abby worked some magic with traffic cameras and was able to chase down some of the military vehicles that McGee had seen and determine exactly how they ended up in the possession of the leaders of the ring. Not only had they been picking up the rejected Marines and Navy sailors, but they’d also been picking up any military gear or vehicles that the military was careless with. 

Tony realized that with as massive a crime ring as they appeared to have stumbled into that they would likely need to send someone undercover. With Gibbs in the hospital, he wasn’t overly excited about going undercover himself. Maybe he could talk to the director about who else was available to go undercover. They may even need multiple undercover operatives.

Actually, given the men had seen both Gibbs and him, Tony realized he couldn’t go undercover anyway even if he wanted to. Ordering McGee to work with Abby to figure out equipment for undercover operatives and Bishop to figure out the best plan for infiltration, Tony headed off to brief Vance on their operation which may have to extend to the FBI and other agencies simply due to the size and suspected number of people involved.

With the evidence they’d gathered and the additional evidence brought back by the backup team, Vance agreed that they needed to close this ring down ASAP. NCIS Agent Chad Dunham, normally worked out of the horn of Africa, but apparently needed a break from the office there for personal reasons. As a completely unknown face to this area, he would be perfect for their undercover operation.

Vance also worked with the FBI to infiltrate other aspects of the organization. Once Tony’s part of imparting the information was completed, he headed back to the hospital under the guise of needing to brief Gibbs. He’d gotten a call from the security team who Gibbs had attempted to bully into getting him out of the hospital to let him know Gibbs was awake. 

Tony smiled, happy to see that Gibbs was feeling a bit better and actually awake. He immediately launched into a report summarizing what they’d found so far in the case.

“Don’t drop the fraud case.” Gibbs glared at Tony, daring him to contradict him.

“That your gut?”

Gibbs grunted. Tony nodded. He wanted to linger, but they needed to move on the fraud case quickly if they wanted to avoid losing a lead. 

Gibbs watched Tony leave. He couldn’t help wondering if Tony had really kissed him the last time he was in Gibbs’ room. Gibbs thought that he’d recognized Tony walking out the door when he first woke. Maybe, next time Tony visited, he’d have to pretend to be asleep to see what Tony did.

Tony called McGee as he left the hospital. “Once you’re done preparing for the crime ring op, you and Bishop meet me at the correct address for our fraud case. Gibbs’ gut is going.”

“Sending Bishop now. Vance is on my ass about the crime ring case, right now. Apparently, someone else was already investigating it and he’s receiving flack for our stumbling into it.”

“Hold down the fort McGee and call Ducky if you need backup.” Tony ordered before hanging up. He hoped that the crime ring case wasn’t about to become an opened can of worms.

Tony arrived at the correct address for the fraud case and heard movement inside that sounded suspiciously like someone was clearing out the building. Instead of waiting for backup, he found a window and peeked in to see what was going on. Cursing as he realized the warehouse was basically empty and that if he didn’t do something quick they would hit a dead end with their fraud case again, Tony called for backup. 

Then hoping that Bishop showed up soon, he charged in to stop their remaining evidence from leaving. “NCIS! Stop!”

Of course, they didn’t stop. They hurried to move faster and fired at Tony. He fired back and dove for safety, trying to block them from getting to any of the exits with his fire.

Fortunately, Bishop quickly took stock of the situation and helped block at least one of them from leaving with the evidence. Unfortunately, everyone else got away. If Tony didn’t know better, he’d swear that they were tipped off that NCIS agents would be coming soon.

Tony cursed as the rest of their suspects got away. At least they had one suspect and some evidence with him that they could take back to headquarters. Gibbs’ gut proved right again. 

Quickly sweeping the building for anymore evidence, Tony and Bishop piled it into the NCIS van that Bishop had driven. They left the backup agents in charge of the scene as soon as the agents arrived. Bishop and Tony headed back to NCIS in their separate vehicles. They needed to get the evidence to Abby before they lost their only lead on the fraud case.

Abby gasped as she read the documents that Tony had brought her from the fraud case, quickly taking her normal copies to work from and putting the rest in evidence lockup. The crime ring case was getting ready to start it’s undercover operation with NCIS Agent Chad Dunham and NCIS Agent Tony Francis both going undercover along with FBI Agent Sacks and a couple of other FBI agents. Something was bothering Tony with the crime ring case, though.

He drove over to the hospital to interrogate one of their other suspects and confirm his suspicions. Within 10 minutes, Tony had the guy spilling his guts. After he’d gotten every drop of information from the man, he left the hospital room.

Stepping into Gibbs’ room for some privacy, Tony called Vance. Vance needed this information immediately. They may be risking the whole operation sending in undercover agents now.

“There are at least 7 former high level Marines or Navy involved and each of them has their own sect. We only have undercover agents for 5. If you’re not careful, not only will the other two leaders get away, but their sects will continue this crime ring right under our noses.” Tony warned. 

“How did you find this out?” 

“Interrogated one of our other suspects.”

“Question the others and find out anything else we’re missing.” Vance commanded. He ordered a pause on the joint operation, saying that new information has come to light and they needed to wait before sending the men undercover to prevent from making a bigger mess of the operation.

With McGee’s help from headquarters providing information on the various subjects, Tony interrogated the rest, but did not come up with anything new. Tony let Vance know that the others didn’t have any new information. Vance nodded in understanding and hung up, returning to the interagency briefing. 

They were being pressured to finish this up quickly as apparently their accidental interruption had disrupted the cover of one of the agents already undercover and they need to wrap it up before he was lost for good. Vance indicated that they needed to find at least two more sects to infiltrate to cover all seven leaders. The handlers for the existing undercover agents disagreed based on the information they’d received from their agents. 

Vance trusted his people and insisted that they find the other two sects before trying to trap the organization. Fornell and his team found another leader that they had missed and the department of homeland security found yet another one. Vance hoped that this really was all the leaders this time. 

Tony meanwhile, after briefing Gibbs on the latest developments of the case, had returned to NCIS headquarters to work on the fraud case, trusting that Vance with the other NCIS agents had the crime ring well in hand. He listened to Abby as she rattled off the expense reports detailing the bribery used in their fraud case to win the company exclusive contracts with the Navy. Something seemed off about the numbers though, so Tony went to grab the originals to compare with; only to discover that the originals were missing. 

He returned to Abby’s lab worried about how evidence could have just disappeared. “Abby, get copies of those reports made for Bishop, McGee, and me. Bishop, start looking into how the originals walked out of the evidence locker. McGee, help me trace these evidence reports back to our key players.”

Everyone nodded and quickly returned to work once Abby had printed off more copies for them. Breaking open the fraud case, McGee couldn’t believe the shoddy work done on the research for this case. The team moved on the break in the case quickly, not wanting to lose a lead.

Not realizing the significance at the time, Tony and the team raided the company at the same time that NCIS Agent Chad Dunham and NCIS Agent Tony Francis were finally sent undercover for the crime ring operation. This time the company didn’t get tipped off and they successfully emptied their headquarters of massive amounts of evidence, though the executives were not there to arrest. The team, including Abby, pored over everything looking for the missing links. 

It was Tony who noticed the link between the company and NCIS Agent Chad Dunham. Bishop found another link between NCIS Agent Tony Francis and the company. Now that they knew what to look for they quickly uncovered more evidence of bribery especially in the form of prostitution amongst a few different Navy Captains and even a Navy Commander which McGee found easily. 

Tony immediately brought the information they had to Vance’s attention and they realized that if they were going to bring down everyone involved in the fraud and bribery ring in addition to the crime ring, they needed to plan a raid of the Navy Captains, Navy Commander, and the other company locations for the same time the undercover operation raid of the crime ring would be going down. Otherwise NCIS Agents Chad Dunham or Tony Francis would be able to warn their cohorts, so that they could escape capture.

It took a lot of coordination and Tony regretted that he didn’t have much time to do more than stop by the hospital for the occasional 5 minute briefing. Still with the help of Tom Morrow at the Department of Homeland Security they were able to pull it off and capture the head officials of the company behind the fraud and bribery ring and also put all the dirty NCIS agents and Navy officers behind bars. The whole thing made Tony sick. 

For so many upper officials to be involved, Tony knew heads were going to roll and change would be coming to all branches of the military. An operation like this had to have been going on for more years than they had evidence for. Prostitution for free for Navy Captains and senior officers involved whenever they visited specific ports in exchange for the company being able to charge outrageous prices for restocking because they controlled that port. 

On top of that between NCIS agents Chad Dunham and Tony Francis they’d been able to warn the company of NCIS raids. At least they had until they’d both been put undercover without a way to contact their normal sources that wouldn’t have looked extremely suspicious. Then there was the link to the crime ring that they hadn’t even been aware of until they started digging into the ex-marine and ex-navy leaders connections. 

Apparently, these 7 leaders of the crime ring also had connections to the bribery ring in that they would get military equipment and vehicles from them that was deemed unusable, but was actually perfectly good and just an excuse to charge the Navy more money for repairs. Technically, the two cases were separate and perpetrated by two different sets of people, but there was significant crossover between the two.

Not all of the leaders of the crime ring were linked to the corrupt Navy and Marine officials involved in the fraud case, but a few of the ex-Marine and ex-Navy leaders of the crime ring had gotten kicked out of the Navy or Marines for crimes they didn’t actually commit to protect the corrupt Navy and Marine officials. In return, the corrupt officials had made sure that anything the company wanted to get rid of "unofficially" made its way into the hands of the ex-Marine and ex-Navy leaders of the crime ring.

In the end, they ended up charging 3 of the crime ring leaders for both the crime ring and for obstruction of justice in regards to the fraud case as well as a number of other crimes they discovered as they sorted through all the evidence. The other 4 crime ring leaders did not have direct connections to the fraud case though they did move military equipment to various employees of the company under investigation in the fraud case. Tony couldn’t help wondering how the pleas would go for the court cases.

There was no doubt that they were all guilty, but with the crossover between the cases Tony suspected that there would be a lot of people trying to claim they were involved in one and not the other. Heck, even with all the evidence they’d gathered Tony still wasn’t sure who was guilty of both crimes or guilty of one and a witness to the other. He did know that the fraud had started long before the crime ring. 

The two leaders of the fraud case were each friends with a high level Navy or Marine officer. Initially, it had just started as friends encouraging their friends to use their services. No one saw the harm in that, but once turned into twice and three times.

That’s when the four friends put their heads together and realized the amount of money they could make off of this. The corrupt Navy Commander recruited some Navy Captains to their cause. The Navy Captains recruited other senior officers to the cause. 

Soon the bribery, prostitution, and fraud reached such excessive amounts that it couldn’t help being noticed. However, the officials couldn’t afford to take the fall so some of the Senior Officers took the fall in exchange for a share of the profits. The officials initially agreed, but soon decided they were giving them too much money. 

That’s when the crime ring really started up as the ex-Marine and ex-Navy officers that had taken the fall reached an agreement to stop receiving money in exchange for receiving various military castoffs that they could sell to earn money. The two leaders of the fraud ring soon realized they had a perfect way to earn even more money. They provided fully functional equipment not just castoffs to the ex-Marine and ex-Navy officers. 

The told the Navy that the equipment was broken and needed replaced and charged the Navy for replacements while they turned around and gave fully functional equipment to the crime ring leaders to sell off for a piece of the profits. That’s where things started drifting apart. The crime ring leaders grew greedy and started getting military equipment through other manners besides from the fraud company and the corrupt military officials. 

What really bothered Tony, though, was NCIS Agents Chad Dunham and Tony Francis’ involvement in the fraud case. Despite being placed in the horn of Africa or maybe because of, Chad had been able to facilitate some coverups. He’d watched all NCIS communiques and data trails for evidence that they’d targeted the company and warned the company if any raids were ordered.

He’d needed the money to be able to impress Agent Ziva David and hadn’t cared at the time what affect it would have on his NCIS career. Tony Francis had a similar story only he’d been recruited to make sure that Chad Dunham didn’t get too big of a head and that no one at NCIS or any other governmental office suspected anything and he’d needed money for his sister’s experimental operation. They truly had no connection to the crime ring case other than the undercover op, though the number of ties between the fraud case and the crime ring case would likely make it hard for them to prove that.

Tony was pretty sure that everyone in NCIS was going to feel the effects of this case whether they were involved or not. For two NCIS agents to be involved in something like this was unheard of. He was glad that they’d manage to wrap up both cases and hoped that the effects of this case would not affect the daily operations of the MCRT over much.

Tony sent Bishop and McGee home as soon as they typed up their reports for a good night’s rest and a couple of days off. Days, he intended to spend lurking around the hospital or helping Gibbs at home, if Gibbs was able to be released. Tony slumped into the chair besides Gibbs’ hospital bed and ran a hand down his face.

Exhaustion showed in every inch of Tony’s body. Tony didn’t even have the energy to drive himself home, he’d probably fall asleep in the chair next to Gibbs’ bed. Gibbs peeked an eye open just enough to determine that it was Tony who had joined him and then pretended to be sleeping to see if the kiss and hand holding would happen again. 

Tony had finished his report before he left NCIS, but he’d been too tired to do much else. All he could think about was how much he missed Gibbs and wanted to see him. Now that he was here, he didn’t know what to do. 

Really, all he wanted to do was sleep close to Gibbs knowing that Gibbs was safe and that the case was wrapped up. Grabbing Gibbs’ hand, Tony settled into sleep knowing that he would wake as soon as Gibbs did. Now that his suspicions had been confirmed about Tony’s original suspicious behavior, Gibbs had other plans for Tony.

“Why are you holding my hand, DiNozzo?” Gibbs growled.

Tony squeaked and dropped Gibbs’ hand. When Tony realized that Gibbs had purposely startled him, Tony glared. “Don’t do that, Gibbs.”

“I needed to know if you had really kissed me and you did, didn’t you?” Gibbs probed.

Tony blurted, “You were asleep. How could you possibly know about that?”

“I woke up when you squeezed my hand, but you were already out the door by the time I opened my eyes, so I didn’t know if I was imagining it. Clearly, I wasn’t.” Gibbs smirked.

Tony shook his head. Even with the almost loss of Gibbs, Tony still couldn’t bring himself to admit his feelings. He was certain that Gibbs didn’t return them, after all why else would Gibbs be practically interrogating him. “Look. I’m really tired. Can you yell at me for taking liberties tomorrow, after I’ve gotten some sleep? These cases were a doozy.”

“Nope. I want to know why you kissed me.” Gibbs narrowed his eyes, watching Tony closely for any indication that what he felt for Tony, Tony felt for him as well.

Tony took Gibbs’ narrowed eyes as a glare, which only reaffirmed that Gibbs wasn’t interested in him. Shoulders slumping even further, Tony murmured, “It’s really nothing.”

“Don’t give me that, Tony.” Gibbs had always known when Tony prevaricated, plus he was really hoping that Tony returned his feelings, “Tell me the truth.” 

Gibbs had been in love with Tony ever since they first met in Baltimore. Every time Tony showed up at his house, he told himself that next time he’d tell Tony he loved him, but he never did. He’d never been able to get over his fear that he’d be taking advantage or that Tony didn’t return his feelings. 

Tony tried one more time to hide even though it used up almost the last of his energy to even do so, “It was just a cheek kiss. It’s not a big deal. It’s not like I kissed you on the lips.”

“Do you want to kiss me on the lips?” Gibbs probed, knowing that Tony was keeping something back. He couldn’t help hoping that this time, he’d have proof of Tony’s feelings and maybe they could actually have the relationship he’d wanted all these years, but hadn’t been willing to sacrifice their friendship and working relationship for.

Tony sputtered, feeling caught out even though he hadn’t admitted anything, “What? Why would I want to kiss you on the lips?”

Gibbs tired and frustrated and in pain, growled, “DiNozzo. Tell the damn truth. Do you want to kiss me on the lips or not?”

Tony stared at Gibbs and buried his head in his hands. Gathering his strength for one last push back, Tony suggested, “I really think this is a conversation for a better time.”

Gibbs raised one eyebrow eloquently. “You already kissed me once, DiNozzo. What’s so different now?”

Tony glared at Gibbs, “That was on the cheek.”

“Kiss me on the cheek then.” Gibbs ordered.

Tony stared at Gibbs not sure that he was hearing correctly. Gibbs couldn’t have possibly just ordered him to kiss him. Maybe Gibbs wasn’t on the mend like the doctors assured him. 

This definitely wasn’t normal Gibbs behavior. “I really think we should talk about this later when you’re not in the hospital and high on painkillers.”

“No.” Gibbs snarled. If he let Tony escape, Gibbs knew that Tony would have his masks completely up and he’d never find out why Tony really kissed him on the cheek. Somehow he knew deep in his gut that if he let Tony leave and put off their conversation on their kiss that they’d never get together. 

Being in the hospital and in so much pain that he couldn’t help wondering if he was really going to survive, though he’d never shown his pain to any except the doctors, the only thing that distracted him from the pain and depression was the kiss Tony gave him. It had taken up all his waking moments thinking about it. He’d been unable to stop wondering if it meant what he hoped. He’d finally seen his chance to find out if Tony really had feelings for him when Tony showed up so exhausted that his walls were practically non existent.

“This really isn’t the best time to talk about this, Gibbs.”

“It’s just one kiss, DiNozzo. You make it sound like the end of the world. What’s the big deal? You already kissed me on the cheek, once. You that afraid of me that you can’t kiss me on the cheek when I’m awake?”

Tony’s exhaustion wore him down and he really didn’t want to get into this. Finally, deciding that the only way he’d get any sleep was to give in, Tony leaned towards Gibbs ready to drop a kiss on Gibbs’ cheek. 

Gibbs wasn’t willing to settle for a cheek kiss, however, and turned his head at the last minute, so that Tony found himself kissing Gibbs’ lips instead. Tony froze. Gibbs didn’t stop kissing him, though. 

He’d expected Tony to be surprised and continued kissing Tony, trying to coax Tony to open his mouth and kiss him back. Tony couldn’t believe Gibbs was kissing him on the lips. Tony had wanted this for so long he couldn’t remember when he didn’t want Gibbs. 

He wanted to return the kiss, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that Gibbs was only kissing him because he was on painkillers. Admittedly, Tony had never seen Gibbs have an adverse reaction to painkillers like this, but Gibbs also avoided painkillers like they were poison, so Tony couldn’t say whether it was a reaction to the painkillers or not. Finally, Gibbs pulled back with a frown when even after a minute Tony hadn’t returned the kiss.

Trying to hide his dejection, Gibbs turned away from Tony. Falling back on his default of pushing everyone away when he was in pain, Gibbs snarled, “Leave, then. I’m sorry for taking advantage. There’s no reason for you to remain here if that’s how you feel.”

Tony shook his head at Gibbs’ impression of a prickly porcupine. In this instance, he did see right through him. Truthfully, even more than the kiss, Gibbs’ hiding behind his bastardness convinced Tony that there were real feelings involved. “I’m not leaving. We will talk about this when I’m sure you’re not just having a reaction to painkillers.”

“What’s there to talk about? You don’t want me. You made that clear. Just leave and we’ll forget all about this. You can even transfer out if it bothers you that much.” Gibbs didn’t want Tony to transfer out, but with his hopes crushed he didn’t know if they could salvage their friendship enough to continue working together and he was just tossing out what he thought Tony would want.

Tony sighed, wondering when he’d lost control of this conversation. “Of course, I want you. I just want to know you’re you and not acting out of character due to the influence of medication.”

Gibbs humphed and stayed facing away from Tony. He’d been so sure that Tony had feelings for him and would want him back. He couldn’t help pushing Tony away when he found out otherwise, especially as he felt the tears leaking out as his feelings bubbled to the surface, out of control.

“Gibbs look at me.”

Gibbs shook his head.

“Gibbs, please.” Tony whispered, knowing he wouldn’t be able to fall asleep with Gibbs this upset and knowing they needed to get this back to a place where they could talk about it later.

Gibbs slowly rolled over and Tony could see the evidence of the tears, he’d tried to hide. Tony moved closer to Gibbs. He couldn’t help hugging the man.

“We’re going to be ok, Gibbs.” Tony dropped a short kiss on Gibbs’ lips, trying to reassure him. “I promise we’ll talk about our feelings when you get out of the hospital, but know that I do care about you as more than a friend.”

“Promise?”

“Promise. I’ll even make you a bulleted list of all the reasons we should get together if you want.”

“I think I’ve had enough bullets for now, DiNozzo.” But Gibbs wasn’t looking so sad anymore. In fact, he couldn’t wait to get out of the hospital. Shockingly, he was looking forward to talking with Tony and building a relationship together, something he hadn’t felt with any relationship he’d had since Shannon.

**Author's Note:**

> My 2018 Prompt collection is now open [here](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/cutsycat_NCIS_Prompts_2018/profile). Just click the sign up link. ;)
> 
> If you are not an ao3 member, you can prompt me [here](http://cutsycat.livejournal.com/50701.html). Please follow the same rules as are listed in the above link. However, because this is a handmade prompt form(that thinks it's a poll), it is considerably more limited than what ao3 provides, so please use the ao3 form if you're an ao3 member. Please note the name option is for a name that I can say this is for so that you know it's for you. Since this is for non ao3 members it won't be true gifts, but you will be mentioned in the notes.


End file.
